The Beginning
by heutsmaityp
Summary: After being captured and tortured by Death Eaters, Tonks is rescued by someone who cared for her more than she ever knew. Honks


A/N: I do not own Harry Potter.

Slowly returning to consciousness she felt different. Taking a moment to study her surroundings, she was in a bedroom, lying propped up in a bed. There was a door off to the right and an unbarred window to her left, which caused her confusion to grow; this definitely did not look like her cell in the dungeon where she fell asleep.

It was a moment later the door opened to reveal someone that she never expected, "Mum?"

Looking up in surprise the older woman said "Nymphadora? You're awake!" rushing of to her daughter.

"Mum, where am I? Why are you here? How did you get here?" She asked quickly, her overwhelming confusion evident.

"You're safe, I don't really know where this is except no one else knows about it. And I am here to heal you." Quickly answering her daughter's questions, knowing her daughter needed these answers to feel safe.

"How did I get here?"

"You don't remember?" Andromeda, her mother, asked face masked in concern. "What is the last thing you remember?"

"The last thing I remember is being in a call being tortured, falling unconscious, and then waking up here." Nymphadora answered shaking her head.

"Two nights ago you were brought here, hurt pretty bad. I came here shortly after that to heal you."

"So the Order found me then?" Tonks asked letting her head fall back.

"No."

Lifting her head up in surprise she asked "No?"

"No, as far as I know they don't even know you'd been rescued."

"Then how?"

"Harry. Harry heard about your capture and went after you. He found you, got you out somehow, brought you to wherever here is and then came to get me." She answered with a frown.

"Is he here? Can I see him?" Tonks asked wanting to thank him.

Answering slowly Andromeda said "He is here; he is resting in the next room. But," she said pausing for a moment. "He can't come see you right now."

"Why not?"

"He was hurt, hurt bad?"

"How bad is it?" she asked concerned for her friend and rescuer.

"Honestly. As bad as you were, he was worse. He had several broken bones, numerous cuts and bruises, he's suffering from magical exhaustion and he lost a lot of blood. But most of all he lost his left eye. The bones and cuts were easy enough to fix but he still hasn't woken up." Her mother finished up.

By that time Nymphadora was almost in tears hearing how badly Harry had been hurt. "Will he live?" she asked hopefully.

Smiling that she could give her daughter some good news she replied "Yes, other than his eye and a few new scars he should make a full recovery."

"Can I go see him?" Tonks asked after being quiet for a moment.

"No. Not yet. You just woke up and while most of your injuries are healed you still need to rest. Tomorrow if your better I'll take you over to him, OK?"

"Ok?" She said resigning herself to waiting.

"Good now lie still I make sure there's nothing I missed."

&&&

The next day she went to visit Harry staying in his room for hours just waiting for him to wake up. Something he wouldn't do for another two days.

When he did finally wake-up he was greeted to her as the first thing he saw. A slow smile broke out on his face. "You're ok?" he asked sounding relieved.

"Yes. I wish I could say the same thing about you." Tonks said with a watery smile.

"I'll be ok." Harry said sounding confident.

"How? How will you be ok? You lost your eye!" Tonks was shouting towards the end.

"Hey, its ok. I knew I could get hurt trying to get you, and besides I did succeed, so it was worth it." He said having reached over to hold her hand, squeezing his hand gently.

"How is it worth it?"

"You're safe." He said simply as if that explained everything.

Somewhat shocked she said "I don't understand."

"I-I love you." Harry said in barely above a whisper.

Not understanding or perhaps not wanting to understand, she didn't know. She said "I love you too."

His heart skipped a beat when he heard that but he realized the love he had for her was different than what she had for him.

"No Tonks, you don't understand. I'm in love with you." This time he said it in a clear voice looking straight at her his emotions clear in his eyes.

Eyes wide Tonks was silent as what he said finally settled in. A moment later she said "I-I don't know what to say."

"You don't have to say anything. I didn't do this because I thought you would suddenly love me back or because I thought you would finally see me as date worthy." He said looking straight out, eye not focused on anything.

"Then why did you?"

Turning to face her he said "Because you're my best friend, better than either Ron or Hermione, because I am so much in love with you that I couldn't stand thinking about not having even if only as a friend and that losing you would hurt more than anything I have ever felt before."

By the time he was finished his eyes were moist and a single tear had rolled down his cheek.

Tonks was stunned she'd had no idea that he felt this way. She knew that he thought of her as a friend and had seen him staring at her occasionally, but because he hadn't said anything she had never given it any thought. Now though she didn't know what to think.

Coming out of her thoughts she said "Harry?" getting him to raise his eyes and look at her. As soon as she made eye contact she sent a gentle probe into his mind, waiting for him to lower his shields. As soon as he did she delved farther into his mind than she had ever gone. At the very back of his mind she found a door, a door that opened as soon as she approached. Memory after memory flooded out consuming both of them. All of them were ones of her or both of them, doing things that she could remember, sitting at the table eating dinner or in the training room or just sitting in the library talking. These were followed by his dreams and fantasies. The depth of the emotion in them almost overwhelmed her and she was forced to draw back.

Blinking she came out of his mind only to focus on him as the first thing she could see.

Pausing for a moment before coming to a decision; she stood up and walked to the bed telling Harry to move over.

When he stopped protesting and moved over to the other side of the bed she climbed in next to him, laying on her side resting her head on his chest.

"Tonks, wh-" he started speaking.

"What am I doing? Why am I doing this?" Seeing him nod his head she continued "Because you have risked and sacrificed more for me than anyone ever has. Because I think you deserve this and because I want to know what it would be like to be with a man who loves me as much as you do. And I know you didn't save me so I would do this, just like I know that I don't love you like you do me, but I am willing to find out if I can. So stop questioning and just relax. Besides I know you have wanted this for a long time, I _saw_ your dreams of doing nothing more than this." And with that she stopped speaking and lifted her head off his chest to lightly kiss him on the lips before lying back down.

It was this sight that greeted Andromeda as she entered a few hours later to check on them. Smiling softly at the sleeping couple she walked out leaving them to there rest.


End file.
